


Chess

by GreenReticule



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-27 01:53:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9945179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenReticule/pseuds/GreenReticule
Summary: Thel liked to take quiet moments to watch the stars, remembering when he first dreamed as a child of becoming a shipmaster.On one of his visits to Infinity, he found himself standing on an observation deck, enjoying the view (and the short break from politics), with Thomas Lasky for company. They fell into talking about their careers, their dreams, fleet maneuvers...It was here that Lasky posed the question, “Ever played chess?”





	

**Author's Note:**

> Reposted from my blog on Tumblr.

“Checkmate.”

“I don’t see…” The Arbiter studied the board for a moment. “Ah, the ‘knight.’ I was not aware that their path could be rotated.”

“As long as the ratio for squares is the same,” the knights were always Thomas Lasky’s favorite. He was glad to show off their versatility to Arbiter Thel ‘Vadam in his first game of chess.

_Infinity_ ’s Captain and the Sangheili diplomat began return pieces to the starting position.

“And when a ‘pawn’ reaches the end, it becomes the ‘queen?’”

“Another queen, yes.”

“Quite the variety of rules,” the Arbiter took a breath as if to add something, but held it back.

Mischief was a rare feature to be seen in the diplomat’s eyes, and Thomas could guess by its presence the phrase that was kept from the air. “Almost as many as ONI,” or something to that extent.

ONI was the reason that the Arbiter and Thomas were seated aboard the _Infinity_ , together in Thomas’ ready room with a board game. After the peace summit with Lydus went sideways, Admiral Hood, Commander Sarah Palmer, and Thomas had realized that they needed to be more careful around ONI especially when building relations. So they began having “mixers” about the _Shadow of Intent_ , a chance for the Sangheili and human crews to build trust and relations and for the leaders to have discussions without concern that ONI may have bugged the ship. Roland was slightly offended by this notion, but understood the precautions.

Of course, too many vanishings of Captains, Commanders, and Admirals to a place beyond ONI’s ears would get suspicious (Thomas would be surprised if they weren’t). So mixers were held on the _Infinity_ as well, to keep up the façade, which actually proved quite useful in building relations.

Usually both Thomas and the Arbiter made sure to be among their crews if there were no secret meetings to be had, but they were closing in on another peace summit. Thomas felt that they both could use a little quiet before the storm of stress.

“I appreciate you being willing to take Admiral Hood’s place in this particular summit.”

“I appreciate that you are willing to have peace summits.”

The Arbiter paused in moving his pieces back, “I’m not sure I follow your comment, Captain.”

“You do realize that you had us on the brink, right?”

“Ah.” The Arbiter resumed his motions.

“I mean, I was there at the start of it. Or near the start. And the fact that we’re able to sit here, playing a game,” Thomas couldn’t keep a smile from his face as he looked at the Arbiter, “it still feels surreal.”

“It has been over six years. Surely some of the novelty has worn off.”

“Not entirely - not yet. Maybe with more of these mixers. Your move to start.”

The wooden chess set was a gift from April Orenski. The Spartan-IV had gotten it as a gift after one of her Fireteam’s shore leaves. Sarah had needled him endlessly about it for a week solid, but it was easy to endure. April may have been his squad leader at Corbulo, may have distanced herself from the rest of them, but she had known how much his makeshift chess set had been to him back then. Even though the wood clacked against the board differently than the shell casings, this set was – in its own way - a little bit of Corbulo. A little bit of home.

And Thomas clearly had the homefield advantage here. The Arbiter’s pieces fell to his rather quickly. He almost felt guilty about it, watching the opposing colors pile on the side of the board. Perhaps he should have gone a little easier on the Sangheili until ‘Vadam had gotten the hang of -

“Check,” the Arbiter said. His mandibles were pressed together in a grin.

Thomas blinked. How?

Then he saw it. A lone pawn sitting at the board’s end, lined up nicely with Thomas’ king. Only it was no longer a pawn. He gave a laugh of surprise.

There was only one move left to Thomas, and it was awfully redundant. He did it anyways, shifting the king up one square. The Arbiter’s new queen slid down the row to rest next to the fleeing king.

“Checkmate.”

Still chuckling, Thomas asked, “When did you learn that move?”

There was a pause; the Arbiter’s mandibles subtly split as the grin faded and he deliberately focused his eyes on the board. He shrugged. It wasn’t the mandible clack of the Sangheili, but rather the shoulder gesture. Thomas wondered if it was politeness that caused him to mimic the human motion, or a subconscious adoption. He had certainly adopted chess quickly enough.

“Come on, Arbiter,” Lasky leaned back, surprised at his own comfort in ribbing the Sangheili diplomat. Maybe the novelty was at last wearing off. “You owe me at least this for teaching you how to kick my butt.”

A sigh. “It’s not a polite topic, Captain.”

“In half an hour, the two of us are going to need to be as polite as we can to someone who likely wants to kill us both. I think we can afford this time to be rude to each other.”

The grin was back, and the Arbiter’s eyes glinted in amusement from underneath a lowered brow, “Well, since you _have_ taken the first step in that freedom…”

He picked up the pawn-turned-queen, looking it over, once again solemn. Sad, almost, Thomas thought.

The Arbiter gestured at his side of the board, a few moves away from checkmate himself, “Reach may fall, but the _Autumn_ changes the course of the war.”

Oh.

“Not a polite topic,” the Arbiter had said. Thomas’ brow wrinkled. Was that a gentle reprimand of Thomas’ comment about the war and humanity’s brink? A comment, he realized with an internal wince, that would have ONI on his back if they had heard it.

Or maybe… he glanced again at the Arbiter, who was studying the small piece in his palm, eyes far away, full of shame and self-hatred.

“The war was full of things that I think we all regret,” Thomas said.

The Arbiter looked up. Thomas gave him a small smile, the same one he had used to reassure Cortana and the Chief. If it worked for those two… “Some have more to regret than others.”

“I can assure you, Captain Lasky, the _Pillar of Autumn_ ’s escape is not one of mine.”

“Never considered it to be.”

After a moment of staring, trying to decipher Thomas’ meaning, the Arbiter pinched the bridge of his brow – another very human gesture – and said, “Captain, please we will have enough time for the verbal acrobatics at the peace summit.”

“Sorry. What I meant was that we can’t change our regrets, only learn from them. You’ve done better than most, and I’m glad to have you on our side.”

It was a Sangheili smile that the Arbiter gave. “Thank you, Captain.”


End file.
